It is truly amazing what we can do on cell phones these days. That said, this isn't any better than anything on the market today. The video is simply better produced than many of the engadget video-walk-around-the-block-while-holding-the-phone sample vids we often see. Also note the choice of lighting - outdoor shots that are mostly shot during the golden hour ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography)</a> ). Very smart of them to release a well produced video like this though, as the common user will assume that the shots will always look this nice.<p>It's a lovely video, but it's not a real world scenario.
Here is another fantastic one, shot with an iphone 4s: <a href="http://vimeo.com/30578363" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/30578363</a>. This video's production is even better than the one linked by OP. That is the thing to remember, isn't it, these videos are produced by people who know how to handle their cameras.<p>I do agree that cameras are getting pretty good. Once I get my 4s, I'm planning on spending a few hours learning videography (or whatever they call it).
Editorializing in the title isn't necessary.<p>For my money, though, the quality is actually fairly middle-of-the-road. The non-tracked shots are shaky, the highlights are blown out, and shadow detail is almost completely non-existent. Hardly "amazing".
It seems a bit silly to use a video clip created with a 1k slow mo dolly and another 1k in video editing software. For some reason I just don't see the average user using that equipment....<p>And even with that....it doesn't really look that amazing?
When doing a time lapse, the number of frames you need to capture per second is much, much lower than the number of frames you need to capture for live video. As such, I would not be surprised if the frames in this video were taken using the still 5MP camera and stitched together to create the video. So while the 1080p, 30fps end product might look great, it really has very little bearing on what the actual video capture looks like on the phone.
Amazing how good smartphone cameras are these days, I remember taking pictures with one of the first Nokia phones equipped with VGA cameras, and you couldn't see a damn think on them.
Just fyi: You should check out Romain Guys other posts, he is an Android developer and does quite a lot of awesome photography in his freetime, always enjoy his photos.
Don't get fooled, it's just a bunch of photos taken and put together in a video. For 1080p all you need is a 2 megapixel camera.<p>This has nothing to do with recording/playback of 1080p on the phone itself.